George,

I would have liked to be there. Venus and the moon looked nice here in
Berlin too, actually it was even more beautiful a day before when the moon
was even "thinner".
Do you have any details on Alan's new scope? I think he wanted to build
himself a larger version of his 10" Newt? Or is this a completely different
beast?

Stefan

"George Normandin" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
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Well, it is certainly dark at Cherry Springs PA. Here's me and my
Obsession 20 waiting for full darkness at the Cherry Springs Star Party.
You can see the conjunction of the Moon & Venus that happened on the
evening of May 19, 2007. As it got dark the two moved ever closer until
their centers were less than a degree apart. Image by my friend Art C.

Long time imager Alan Chen was set up about 50 feet away with his new
12.5-inch astro-camera doing a long shot of M-101, and bugging me to show
it to him in my Dob. About 300 amateur astronomers (many doing CCD'ing)
amused themselves observing this beautiful conjunction while waiting for a
night of dark-sky observing (cut short by clouds after mid-night). At CSSP
2007 the weather was partly cooperative with one night of sucker holes,
one totally clear night, and the 19th that was good until the clouds moved
in shortly after mid-night. Alan told me that there was white-out snow on
Wednesday, and it was well below freezing on the night of 18/19, and
nearly so the rest of the nights.

I'll post more CSSP pictures over the next few days.

George N